Programmatic display ad clickers ARE your clients

Performance Display
ads turn viewers
into clickers
How today’s display ads are engaging, targeted and
complementary to search marketing.
Research Paper # 4
January 2014

Contents
Foreword by Jonathan Wolf, Chief Product Officer, Criteo.......................................1
Executive summary...................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................3
The basics: what is Performance Display advertising?............................................4
The study: why, how and what..................................................................................5
Finding #1: Performance Display ads are viewed and clicked. On a massive scale
Seeing ads.....................................................................................................7
Clicking on ads...............................................................................................8
Audience renewal..........................................................................................10
Finding #2: Clickers are the right people at the right time. And they mean it
Clicks are in target........................................................................................13
Better than in target, in market.....................................................................16
Finding #3: Performance Display plays nice with others, especially Search
Reach extension..........................................................................................18
Focus on big tickets.....................................................................................19
Media spend optimization.............................................................................20
Beyond direct response...............................................................................21
Conclusion...............................................................................................................23
Sourcing and methodology.....................................................................................24
Project Management: Florent Maillard
Graphic Design: Valentine Leboucq
Special thanks to:
Alexandra Pelissero
Bertrand Krug
Céline Neuman Touboul
Diane Chambrillon
Gilles Giudicelli
Jennifer Hofer
Jonathan Wolf
Lise Bissonnette Janody
Michaël Pelot
Patrick Wyatt
Pierre Passard
Thomas Volpi

1 / 24© Criteo—January 2014
Performance Display ads turn viewers into clickers
Foreword by Jonathan Wolf,
Chief Product Officer, Criteo
Performance Display has come of age. It is increasingly an automatic part of the
annual marketing plan, alongside search and television. In part this reflects the
scale that it can now deliver. For example Criteo, one of the leaders in this industry,
reaches over 800 million unique users each month.
But Performance Display is about much more than scale. It is certainly not about
bundling together audiences, and addressing them in the old “spray and pray”
fashion. Rather, it uses state-of-the art technology to individually target exactly the
right users for an advertiser, and show them an individually personalized message
at the best possible time.
All this matters only because Performance Display delivers measurable sales.
People don’t only click on Performance Display ads, they purchase. And marketers can directly relate sales to
individual clicks from Performance Display ads, and ensure they hit their target Cost Of Sales. Our 4,000 clients
know this, they value this, and we believe it is part of the reason why 90% of them remained loyal in each of
the last three years1
.
There are, however, a few recurring questions we get from our clients and which, until recently, were left partly
unanswered:
• How incremental is Performance Display to the other marketing channels that I use? Does it bring
me users that I couldn’t otherwise reach, or am I simply paying twice for the same people?
• What sort of people click on Performance Display ads? Are these the same people who are my target
customers?
• It seems obvious that an ad that generates a click onto my website is more valuable than one that
generates no response, but some people tell me that I should only worry about viewers. What does
the data show?
• How long should I let my Performance Display ads run?
This white paper answers the above questions, and more. It contains an unprecedented depth and breadth of
insights into who Performance Display clickers really are, how many they are, and what they do online. We
tried to keep its content compact and actionable so you can easily build its learnings into your future advertising
strategies.
We believe your advertising teams, your marketing experts, your brand ambassadors—and particularly your
CFO—will thank you for taking a few minutes on this.
1 - 90% retention rate in each of the last three years, as of June 30, 2013 (Source: Criteo)

2 / 24 © Criteo—January 2014
Executive summary
This paper explores the development and success of Performance Display advertising, drawing
on an extensive field study performed in partnership with Nielsen and Mediametrie.
In the past, display was perceived as having a poor ROI, limited scale, and as being largely
irrelevant to consumers. The rapid technical development in Performance Display advertising
has significantly increased its effectiveness.
This paper demonstrates that, during the study:
1 Performance Display has a large and unique audience:
· Criteo campaigns reached 850m unique users in September 20131
– more
than Google Search network, ranking as the second largest display ad
ecosystem after Google Display Network
· At least 19.4% of internet users clicked on at least one Criteo ad during
the fieldwork2
· 72.9% of the clickers clicked less than 3 times during the same timeframe2
2 Clickers on Performance Display are more valuable than the average
internet user:
· Older (over-indexing on 35+ years old internet users)2
· Richer (over-indexing on those with an annual income over $75,000)2
· Lower in the purchase funnel
1 - comScore MMX, September 2013, worldwide measure. Number of unique users exposed to one or more Criteo banners. Age: 15+
2 - Nielsen and Mediametrie//NetRatings, France, 2012 and 2013, full methodology detailed on page 24
3 Search and Performance Display work well together:
· 65% of display clickers have not clicked on a Search ad in the same vertical2
· Users who see Performance Display make 51% more Organic Search clicks2

Not so long ago:
• Online display ads were impersonal at best, and
often missed the mark.
• Advertising managers were begging their
organization’s C-level decision makers for
online ad budget, using data that was rarely
compelling enough to justify the time spent on
the conversation.
• The ROI (Return on Investment) of online
display ads was way below that of other direct
response channels such as Search, so was
difficult to defend.
Times have changed:
• Advertising strategists now enjoy the
measurable benefit of real-time intelligence
injected into tactical ad plans.
• Where an advertiser’s target audience has
historically been indifferent to (even sometimes
annoyed by) irrelevant, interruptive online
display ads, they now click and convert more
than ever. Advertisers are seeing a 0.51%
click-through rate on average1
—up to 2%
for industries like real estate who are doing
personalized retargeting—compared to an
average of 0.10% for classic display ads2
.
• Engagement is at an all-time high for the most
active advertisers.
• The online ROI for Performance Display, as
measured by standard tools, is on par with that
of Search. Thus making it easier to convince
C-Level decision-makers.
How did this happen? The purpose of this white
paper is to tell that story. Using real-world,
behavior-based, third-party data, we will show how
Performance Display advertising has evolved. We’ll
interpret the data within the context of our collective
experience, showing you why some of the largest
companies in the world are onboard.
But first, let’s take a step back and go
back to basics.
1 - Source Criteo: in 2012, in the USA, the average Criteo display CTR was 0.51%.
2 - Source Pointroll: in 2012, the CTR for standard display (excluding rich media and video) in North America was 0.10%.
Introduction
Even more than other online phenomena, display advertising has
changed dramatically in the last few years.

Though display advertising has changed drastically
over the last few years, the difference between
yesterday’s display ads and the new generation of
display, also known as Performance Display, is not
immediately apparent to the untrained eye. Before
we go further, we’ll define the basic concepts and
offer a quick example.
What has NOT changed between
‘classic’ display and Performance
Display? The size of the ads: Performance Display
doesn’t owe its success to larger ad units. Rather,
it is based on IAB-compliant ad units. As a result, it
has achieved unprecedented scale. Not more bells
and whistles, either: Performance Display is based
on tried-and-true technologies, and is respectful of
user experience. It doesn’t try to grab users’ attention
using invasive techniques such as interstitials.
What has changed happens behind the
scenes. Performance Display injects intelligence
into ad targeting: it feeds on user intelligence to
cherry-pick which users to target in priority, and at
what cost. For example, consider an advertisement
for a Paris hotel. When surfing the net, a web
user who recently booked a flight from New York
to Paris and who will soon be boarding, will see
a personalized ad promoting a choice of Paris
hotels according to the flight, as well as any other
information than can be used for optimization in this
situation.
Performance Display also injects real-time
intelligence into ad creatives, which are generated
dynamically based on known or assessed user
purchasing intent. As a result, it shows each specific
user the products that they are most likely to
purchase at this specific moment.
The advertising industry has seen a steady increase
of Performance Display ad clicks when based on
personalization1
. This is not true for display ads in
general; classic banner ads have a decreasing CTR
according to third party sources2
.
1 - Source Pointroll: in 2012 (entire year), the CTR for standard display (excluding rich media and video) in North America was
0.10%. During the same period, in the USA, the average Criteo display CTR was 0.51%.
2 - “Lessons Learned – Maximising returns with Digital Media”, comScore, December 2009. “There are 50% fewer clickers now
than in July 2007.”
CLASSIC DISPLAY
PERFORMANCE
DISPLAY
Performance Display is all about exposing the right product, to the right
user, at the right time.
The basics: what is Performance Display advertising?

The study: why, how and what
1 - “How Online Advertising Works,” comScore, December 2008.
2 - “Measuring the Value of Users Who Click on Online Display Ads,” Criteo, June 2012. “The more browsers click, the more they
buy”.
3 - “Search and Performance Display: Better together,” Criteo, September 2012. “Users who have seen such ads click on Natural
(non-paid) branded search results 28% more frequently than do non-exposed visitors.”
With such remarkable results, why commission a
third-party study to measure user click behavior
relative to Performance Display advertising?
The context
Prior to our studies, the conventional wisdom in
our industry was heavily influenced by research
undertaken by comScore in 20081
, which
asserted that:
• Two-thirds of internet users did not click on any
display ads over the course of a month.
• The demographics of clickers were skewed
toward a younger audience aged 25 to 44 and
earning less than $40,000 per year.
• Only 16% of internet users accounted for 80%
of all clicks.
In early 2012, we undertook our own research
and demonstrated the following:
• The audience who clicks on timely, relevant ads
is extremely valuable2
.
• There are significant synergies between Search
Marketing and Online Display advertising,
resulting in increased conversions and improved
advertising ROI3
.
However, critical questions remained unanswered:
• How many people click on Performance Display
ads?
• Who are these clickers? What are the
demographics of this audience?
• Are the people clicking on Performance Display
ads the same people who click on Search ads?
• How does Performance Display advertising
impact media spend?
That’s what we wanted to find out, so from
September 2012 through May 2013, the Criteo
research team partnered with Nielsen, one of
the world’s most respected third-party research
experts, to measure user engagement inspired by
Performance Display ads. This was the first time
an independent third party had globally measured
engagement generated by this new kind of
advertising.
This study represents the industry’s first scientific
measurement by a trusted third party of the
Performance Display ad phenomenon. While
previous analyses measured only classic, static,
untargeted display advertising, this study examines
and describes data specific to Performance Display
ads, delving into the behavior of the people who click
on the ads.

How it worked
• Criteo inserted Nielsen tags in all ads displayed
globally in September and October 2012.
• These tags allowed Nielsen to measure clicks
as a Key Performance Indicator and analyze
user paths by studying the US and European
participants’ entire browsing patterns during that
time. (This was the first time clicks were able to
be measured as a KPI in a study like this.)
• Nielsen reconciled their records of user clicks
with existing data such as demographics, search
engine engagement, and ecommerce sites
visited.
• The study sample consisted of 220,000 monthly
US panelists and 22,000 monthly French
panelists, carefully selected to be representative
of these countries’ respective online populations.
• All of this was also measured along the
marketing funnel (in France) comparing upper
and lower funnel campaigns.
• A state-of-the-art control group ensured no
demographic or online behavior bias.
• Main results were made public by Criteo and
Nielsen in April 2013.
What was measured
• Number of clickers
• Number of clicks per person
• Clickers’ profiles
• Clicks to ecommerce sites via Criteo,
SEO and SEM
• Clickers exclusive to Criteo
• Search engine queries
• Ecommerce sites visited
Within these verticals
• Automobile / Moto / Boating
• Classified Ads
• Computing / High Tech
• Culture / Media / Tickets / Leisure
• Fashion / Luxury
• Home Improvement / Gardening / Interior
Design
• Mass Merchant
• Real Estate
• Sporting Goods
• Telecommunication / Internet
• Travel
The findings
The following pages reveal the lessons we learned
through this study, and explain the three reasons
the ROI of a strategic online ad campaign increases
when incorporating Performance Display advertising.

1 - Source: IAB US, 2012
2 - Source: According to PWC, in 2012, Performance-driven online advertising had a 67% market share, compared to only 31%
for CPM advertising.
3 - comScore MMX, September 2013, worldwide. Number of unique users exposed to one or more Criteo banners. Age: 15+
4 - A group of search-related websites where your ads can appear, including Google Search sites and Search sites that partner
with Google to show ads (Search partners).
Performance Display advertising has become a
massive global media solution. This is not a minor
blip on the radar screen of the advertising industry,
it is an idea whose time has come. And although still
relatively new, we’ve already seen a significant shift
in how users engage with advertisers from initial ad
exposure through conversion.
This trend is supported by a general increase
we’ve witnessed in advertisers’ ad spend in all
performance-based channels, whether it be Search,
Affiliate Networks or Performance Display – more
than doubling from 11% to 27% between 2008 and
2011 alone1
. The lesson is clear: more and more
advertisers are willing to pay for performance, not
just views2
.
We’ll take a look here at three pieces of the
advertising puzzle: exposure, clicks, and then a quick
look at the audience breakdown. Both exposure
and clicks are important due to the visual nature
of display advertising, exposure to ads has value
regardless of whether the user takes immediate
action (clicks) or not. This is similar to the value of
billboards: brand recognition builds up over time and
contributes to an eventual response.
Seeing ads
One of the signs proving that Performance Display
has become big is the visibility it provides to its
advertisers. It now has reached orders of magnitude
comparable with major advertising channels as
Social or Search. To underscore the scope of this
massive exposure, consider this:
• In September 2013 alone, according to
comScore MMX3
, Criteo campaigns reached
849.7 million unique users worldwide.
• This was 53% of all internet users3
.
• As a comparison, the Google Search Network
gathers 543.2 million unique users4
.
• In other words, more than half of everyone
online during September 2013 saw a
Performance Display ad. (This is a conservative
number because it only accounts for display ads
from Criteo.)
Finding #1
Performance Display ads are viewed and
clicked. On a massive scale.

According to comScore MMX , Criteo exposed 849.7 million unique users in September 2013, worldwide.
*comScore MMX, September 2013. Includes Google.com, Google Display Network and Google Search Network.
1 - comScore MMX, September 2013, Worldwide measure. Number of unique users exposed to one or more Criteo banners. Age: 15+
3 - Source: INSEE, January 2010 census.
Clicking on ads
The click remains the only “undebatable” proof of the link between exposure and sales. This is part of what has
made Paid Search and Performance Display so successful. On the other hand, even though many sales occur
after simple exposure, the real causality of post-view attribution remains generally unproven, or requires case-
by-case, custom studies.
During the course of this study:
• 19.4% of Internet users in France–almost 8.5 million people–clicked on at least one Performance Display
ad. This compares closely to the 26.6 million who clicked on SEM ads during the same time period2
.
• 330,000 users clicked on Performance Display ads every day throughout the study in France. This is equal
to 1 out of every 7 people living in Paris in just 24 hours3
.
• In the United States, a more advanced analysis allowed to show that internet users are more willing to click
on Performance Display banners at some specific moments. During weekdays for instance, these time
slots are essentially before and after working hours (7-9am and 7-9pm). During weekends, the peak times
are between 11am and 12pm.
Figure 1: Using Criteo as an example, Performance Display is now a one-to-
one marketing channel at a large scale1
AD Network
849.7 MM
1,474 MM*
53.0% reach
91.9% reach

9 / 24
© Criteo—January 2014
Figure 2:Time slots for Performance Display clickers compared to average
internet users, during weekdays1
.
Performance Display engages target users all day long and especially during the time slots
before and after working hours (7-9 am and 7-9pm on weekdays).
0.0%
0.0%
4.0%
4.0%
2.0%
2.0%
6.0%
6.0%
8.0%
8.0%
1.0%
1.0%
5.0%
5.0%
3.0%
3.0%
7.0%
7.0%
9.0%
9.0%
10.0%
CLICKS (%)
PAGES (%)
ACTIVE UNIVERSE
12:00AM
01:00AM
02:00AM
03:00AM
04:00AM
05:00AM
06:00AM
07:00AM
08:00AM
09:00AM
10:00AM
11:00AM
12:00PM
01:00PM
02:00PM
03:00PM
04:00PM
05:00PM
06:00PM
07:00PM
08:00PM
09:00PM
10:00PM
11:00PM
12:00AM
01:00AM
02:00AM
03:00AM
04:00AM
05:00AM
06:00AM
07:00AM
08:00AM
09:00AM
10:00AM
11:00AM
12:00PM
01:00PM
02:00PM
03:00PM
04:00PM
05:00PM
06:00PM
07:00PM
08:00PM
09:00PM
10:00PM
11:00PM
CLICKS (%)
PAGES (%)
ACTIVE UNIVERSE
Figure 3:Time slots for Performance Display clickers compared to average
internet users, during weekend days1
.

10 / 24
Audience renewal
These clickers are not one static group of the same
users repeating their clicks and visits over time. We
saw an increase in the number and percentage of
new users each month during the study, resulting
with a cumulative curve straighter than usual: 39%
of the clickers clicked in October, but did not click in
September. According to Bertrand Krug from Nielsen-
Mediametrie//NetRatings, “In two months, the curve
representing the accumulation of unique clickers
over time turned out to be much more linear than
what is seen for most online reach and frequency
measures, thus strongly suggesting that beyond this
timeframe, the potential pool of unique clickers may
be even higher than 19.4%.”
This is important to advertisers because a
progressive audience reach–rather than a finite
group of repeat users–indicates the potential for
audience growth by way of an increase in unique
visitors, which ultimately corresponds to a continuing
market expansion.
Performance Display draws from a large pool of users.
Figure 4: Accumulation of unique clickers over time1
0%
40%
20%
60%
80%
100%
9/1/2012
9/3/2012
9/5/2012
9/7/2012
9/9/2012
9/11/2012
9/13/2012
9/15/2012
9/17/2012
9/19/2012
9/21/2012
9/23/2012
9/25/2012
9/27/2012
9/29/2012
10/3/2012
10/5/2012
10/7/2012
10/9/2012
10/11/2012
10/13/2012
10/15/2012
10/17/2012
10/19/2012
10/21/2012
10/23/2012
10/25/2012
10/27/2012
10/29/2012
10/31/2012
10/1/2012
% OF CLICKS % OF CLICKERS
AFTER ONE MONTH:
49.8%
OF CLICKS AND
60.9%
OF CLICKERS

11 / 24
As a result, it is no surprise that in 2 months, most internet users who clicked on Performance Banner Ads
(72.9%) clicked 3 times or less. 40% of the clickers clicked only once in two months, and only 27.1% of the
clickers clicked 4 times or more.
72.9%
OF CLICKERS
40%
22%
11%
1 116 162 127 173 138 184 149 195 1510 20 21+
Figure 5: Breakdown of Performance Display clicks by frequency1
CLOSE TO 3 OUT OF 4
INTERNET USERS CLICK
3 T I M E S O R L E S S

Takeaway #1
Performance Display is now a major
marketing channel.
Considering the significant extent of exposure and engagement, it’s
clear that Performance Display ads have become a major marketing
channel–on a par with established channels such as Social and Search.
At this point, many advertisers are wondering, “Who cares? What do
these clickers do for me? Can you prove they’re my target audience?”
These are all important questions, to which Nielsen provided detailed
answers.

Finding #2
Clickers are the right people at the right time.
And they mean it.
Regardless of how many views and clicks an ad gets,
it’s more important to make the right connections. As
almost any advertiser can attest, engaging the wrong
audience with expensive online advertising has a
painful, negative impact on ad spend ROI. You want
to avoid engaging users who are not likely to turn
into customers.
So continuing on from our look at the Performance
Display ad audience in the previous section,
it’s encouraging to see that during our study,
Performance Display ads not only reached
advertisers’ intended audiences, but that the
audiences responded purposefully, or with intent.
Our research yielded strong indirect evidence that an
overwhelming majority of users don’t click on ads by
chance.
Clickers are in target
Users who click on Performance Display ads proved
to be the right target audience for advertisers.
From a previous Criteo study, we already knew1
the
following:
• Clickers buy 3x more often than non-clickers.
• Almost half of regular buyers click on Criteo ads
alone.
• 20% of users are responsible for 50% of clicks
and sales.
• The more users click, the more they buy.
Now, based on Nielsen’s current findings, we also
saw that users clicking on Performance Display ads
were on target and had a strong spending power.
Audience breakdown
Clickers retained by Performance Display are
more mature and upscale than average. Our study
showed that Performance Display ad clickers are
in higher age and income brackets–so have more
spending power–than classic display ad clickers
have according to comScore2
. In the US for example,
according to Nielsen, internet users clicking on
Performance Display ads are skewed towards those
over 35 years old and with an annual income over
$75,000. Results found in France were consistent
with the US findings.
1 - “Measuring the Value of Users Who Click on Online Display Ads,” Criteo, June 2012.
2 - “How Online Advertising Works,” comScore, December 2008.

Figure 6: Demographics of Performance Display clickers in the US index
against all online users (average = 100)1
33
67
78
114
135
132
109
130
94
99
84
93
2-17 years old
$ 0-24,999
35-49 years old
$ 50,000-74,999
18-24 years old
$ 25,000-49,999
50-64 years old
$ 100,000-149,999
25-34 years old
$ 75,000-99,999
65 years old and more
$ 150,000+
“Internet users clicking on
Performance Display ads are
skewed towards those over 35
years old and with an annual
income over $75,000.”

15 / 24
Industries such as High Tech, Automotive Manufacturing, and Sporting Goods are famous for targeting slightly
more men than women. Interestingly, more than 70% of the internet users clicking on Performance Display
campaigns coming from these advertisers are male, according to Nielsen. On the other hand, Home and
Garden, Fashion, and Luxury advertisers have many more female clickers than male clickers. The fact that
clickers are consistent with advertisers’ core targets serves as additional proof that clicking on Performance
Display ads does not happen as a coincidence.
Figure 7: Demographics of Performance Display clickers by industry 1
100%
0%
High
Tech
Auto Sporting
Goods
Real
Estate
Mass
Merchant
Travel Home &
Garden
Fashion
& Luxury
50%
FEMALE
MALE
28%
30% 31%
45%
50% 51% 51%
68%
72%
70% 69%
55%
50% 49% 49%
32%
Morethan70%ofinternetusersclickingonHighTechandAutoPerformanceDisplaycampaignsaremales.
Clickersareconsistentwithadvertisers’coretargets.
Even users new to the brand who might have been merely browsing with no real intent to purchase (these are
the upper funnel clickers) matched the advertiser’s target audience definition. These were not random people
the advertiser was just hoping to appeal to.
This of course is due to the fact that Performance Display ads are targeted to a potential audience using
demographic and behavioral data. This is where the ads’ intelligence goes to work. Even people who have not
shopped or shown interest in the specific product or service are likely to engage because the advertiser is using
a strategy that leverages big data.
Existing
Customer
Prospect
Customer
MID FUNNEL
16 - 400 DAYS
0 - 1 5 D A Y S
LOWER FUNNEL
Criteo © 2013
Lapsed Visitors
Lapsed Customers
Browsers
Shoppers
Customers

1 - According to Kenshoo, in 2012, the average return on ad spend was $7.49. It is $12.96 according to Criteo’s clients.
2 - FEVAD is the French e-commerce trade association.
3 - Source Criteo, 2012 (same region and same period as FEVAD, Q3 2012)
Better than in target, in market
In terms of targeting, ROI always speaks better than
demographic profiles or engagement. And advertisers
love that ROI. The latest figures1
show that
Performance Display’s return on ad spend is equal,
if not superior, to Paid Search’s. In other words, a
CPC driven advertising solution providing a high ROI
drives in-market clickers.
During the third quarter of 2012, according to
FEVAD2
, the average conversion rate was 2.5% in
France. During the same period, a Performance
Display solution like Criteo generated an average
conversion rate of 5.02%3
for all advertisers. It is the
first significant figure proving that those internet users
who click on Performance Display ads are more in
market than average clickers.
As marketers know, it’s not just about numbers. All
the views and clicks in the world don’t do any good if
the viewers and clickers are bored or lost or wrong.
But the data showed that users demonstrated an
increased intent when clicking on Performance
Display ads within an industry also using SEM
advertising.
Nielsen’s findings also describe how users clicking
on Performance Display ads are in market. One can
take for granted that internet users’ search behavior
is a relevant engagement indicator, and one sign that
a user is in market is that he makes more searches
than average for a specific industry. During the
study, within each industry, Performance Display ad
clickers clicked on 35% more Paid Search results
than non-Performance Display ad clickers. And
more importantly, they performed 51% more Organic
searches in that same vertical than a matching
control sample of non-clickers. This shows that those
clicking on Performance Display ads are mostly
active prospects, not simply curious or random users.
They are what we consider to be intentional clickers
with a specific goal.
“On average, searchers who click
on Performance Display ads do
more Organic Search clicks and
+35% more Paid Search clicks,
resulting in a significant increase
in natural search.”
+51%

17 / 24
Takeaway #2
Performance Display ads target the
right people.
Performance Display ads appeal to advertisers because they reach the
right people who are in the right mindset. This, so far, has been the Holy
Grail of online advertising. Users benefit from this user-centric adverti-
sing strategy because they get what they want faster and easier. It’s a
classic win-win that has a significant positive impact on ad spend ROI.
Interestingly, CPC display and especially its more sophisticated fla-
vors remain relevant and effective. And SEO will always be appealing
because the value of a free ad is so high.
So how should advertisers choose between SEM, SEO and Performance
Display ad campaigns? They shouldn’t. In the following section, we
share what we’ve learned about the synergies between the three.

Finding #3
Performance Display plays nice with others,
especially search.
We’ve learned that the effectiveness of SEM and SEO
is increased when running Performance Display ads.
We’ve seen before that using Criteo along with SEM
provides a great incremental value. But it also creates
more synergies than cannibalization. One of the more
unexpected results from the Nielsen study was the
relationship between SEM, SEO and Performance
Display ads. When used together, we saw three great
synergies: extension, intention, and optimization of
advertisers’ media spend.
Reach extension: 65% of internet users
clicking on Performance Display ads did
not click on SEM links within the same
industry.
No matter how valuable the audience addressed by
Performance Display may be, it has limited value
if it is already addressed by other direct response
channels such as Search. What we saw is that, far
from cannibalizing Search campaigns, Performance
Display reaches users that Paid Search does not.
Even though Google itself may be the largest website,
it should not lead to the misperception that everyone
is exposed to Paid Search ads, or clicks on them. The
reasons for this are:
1. Not all Search queries trigger ads. Many queries do
not represent valuable real estate for advertisers, and
therefore no one places ads on them.
2. Among users exposed to Paid Search ads, some
do not click at all.
As a result, the aggregate audience reached by Paid
Search is significantly inferior to that reached by
Google.
In France, for instance, even though 94.3% of
internet users visit Google at least once per month1
,
only 58.3% actually click on Paid Search ads2
. This
would leave at least 41.7% of the online population
uncovered by Paid Search. Performance Display
makes it possible to reach some of these users.
According to comScore, in terms of audience, 48.5%
of the users exposed to Criteo ads worldwide in
September 2013 did not engage with the Google
Search Network. In other words, using Criteo along
with SEM solutions provides a great complementary
and incremental value3
.
It is no surprise that according to Nielsen, in terms
of engagement, 65% of internet users in France
who clicked on Performance Display ads did not
click on SEM links within the same industry. They
tended to choose one or the other. This exclusivity is
great for advertisers because it extends their reach
to audiences who respond to different types of ads
without having to worry wasting ad spend on a user
clicking both types.
“65% of internet users clicking
on Performance Display ads did
not click on SEM links within the
same industry”
1 - comScore MMX, September 2013, France. Age: 6+
2 - Nielsen and Mediametrie//NetRatings, France, 2012 and 2013, full methodology detailed on page 24. 26.6 million unique
users clicked on Paid Search Links in a two month period. In other words, it cannot be more in just one month.
3 - comScore MMX, September 2013, worldwide measure. Number of unique users exposed to one or more Criteo banners. Age: 15+

19 / 24
Focus on big tickets
Performance Display ads showed an increased intent on expensive “big ticket” products the most. During the
two-month study, 91% of internet users clicking on real estate display campaigns, and 81% of those clicking
on automotive display campaigns, did not click on SEM ads. Not only does Performance Display allow adverti-
sers to engage internet users not addressed by Paid Search, it brings even more incremental internet users to
industries with the highest sales transactions.
Figure 8: Share of Performance Display clickers who didn’t click on Paid
Search ads from the same vertical1
91%
81%
77%
73% 73%
71%
69%
65%
59% 59%
50%
Real
Estate
TravelMass
Merchant
TelecomClassified
Ads
Home &
Interior
Fashion &
Luxury
High
Tech
Enter-
tainment
Sporting
Goods
Auto
Clickers exclusive to Performance
Display are over represented
in higher-involvement product
categories.

On average, Organic Search clicks
are increased by 51%
Media spend optimization
When users frequently see a relevant display ad, they have a better idea of what they are looking for. As a
result, their use of search is likely to result in more specific queries1
. The more specific a search query is, the
higher the chances of it returning relevant pages in the natural search results. As a consequence, users are
more likely to click on natural search results the more specific their query is. These, of course, have the great
advantage of being free. When Paid Search clicks are increased by 35%, Organic Search clicks are increased
by 51%. This significantly optimizes advertisers’ overall media spend.
Figure 9: Uplift in Organic Search by industry2
Fashion & Luxury
Travel
Auto
Mass Merchants
Classifieds
Telecom
High-Tech & Computing
Home & Garden
126%
105%
59%
49%
40%
38%
33%
20%
1 - “Search and Performance Display, Better Together,” Nielsen and Criteo study, September 2012.

1 - Source: Nielsen//Netratings, Aggregated results of 5 ad Effectiveness studies between 2010 and 2012 in the US, Germany,
France and the UK. Verticals: Retail (Apparel, Consumer Electronics) & Travel. Results displayed here apply to the campaigns’
respective target audiences.
This is consistent with Criteo’s previous research with Nielsen. In a series of studies carried out between
2011 and 2012, we found that people exposed to Performance Display ads, whether they clicked or not, were
significantly more likely to search brands or perform “refined” queries (e.g. brand + name of the model, as
opposed to generic queries) than people not exposed to Performance Display ads.
Beyond direct response
Before becoming the efficient direct response solution described in these pages, Performance Display was and
remains a visual advertising solution. One should remember here that with a higher than average 0.51% CTR,
for every one click, there are about 200 dynamic, personalized ads displayed — all targeted to users who have
been identified as the most willing to click.
Previous Criteo/Nielsen studies1
showed that internet users exposed to Performance Display not only have
a higher purchase intent (+54%), brand favorability (+38%) and brand awareness (+21%), but they’re also
more likely to make brand recommendations (+29%). This proves that the pay-per-click Performance Display
solutions do offer advertisers a real branding effect, which is simply not valuated in direct-response media
buying.
Delivering a proven impact on KPIs such as branding—and making it happen on a global scale—allows
Performance Display to compete with more classic channels such as TV.

Takeaway #3
Performance Display works great
with search marketing.
Not only is Performance Display advertising an effective standalone
marketing channel with measurable ROI, but it’s been proven to generate
significant synergies with other channels, like Search. Performance
Display improves the effectiveness of advertisers’ overall media spend.

Conclusion
Regardless of the ever-changing landscape of technology, one thing remains constant: advertisers must
reach customers effectively.
From the guy dancing around with a sign on the street corner, to the blimp floating over the stadium, to the
adorable baby in the TV commercial, advertisers’ goals are the same: get the target customers’ attention,
convey information and motivate action.
Because today’s Performance Display ads leverage Big Data to reach the right audience at the right time,
we’re seeing a significantly more effective approach to online advertising.
The ultimate result is that viewers are turning into clickers who are turning into customers.
USERS’ CLICKS
ARE INTENTIONAL
Users clicking on Perfor-
mance Display ads are in
target and in market.
GLOBAL
AUDIENCE IS
MASSIVE
Almost 20% of internet
users in France clicked on
at least one Performance
Display ad during this
study.
SEARCH RESULTS
ARE ENHANCED
Performance Display ads
increase effectiveness of
SEO and did not overlap
with SEM efforts.

Sourcing and methodology
Nielsen and Mediametrie//NetRatings:
Nielsen and its French joint venture Mediametrie//NetRatings (Mediametrie) partnered with Criteo on
a study designed to measure clickers’ profiles, behaviors and value for advertisers. Tracking was set
up on all Criteo campaigns and custom, panel-based data was gathered for two major Criteo markets:
France, where Criteo was founded, and the United States.
Every day for two months (September and October 2012), Nielsen collected all laptop and desktop
web actions, excluding internet applications, of 22,000 panelist users in France, and about 180,000
in the US. Nielsen tracked each click on a Criteo ad banner during this period with 99.8% accuracy
(Criteo figures compared to Nielsen figures).
The study included an advanced analysis of search (in France only) and surf behavior for these pane-
list users broken down by industry, acquisition campaigns and lower funnel campaigns. This was the
first time Nielsen’s standard methodology had been used for measuring and analyzing clickstream
behavior, identifying source of traffic and SEO/SEM
Control group: Nielsen constructed a state-of-art control group based on sessions volume, pages
viewed volume and demographics.
FRANCE
Source: Mediametrie//NetRatings (Nielsen)–Custom research–All locations–Internet Applications
Excluded–Online users 2+ –France–Period: September to October 2012–Copyright Mediametrie//
NetRatings-Nielsen
USA
Source: Nielsen–Custom research–All locations–Internet Applications Excluded–Online users 2+
–USA–Period: September to October 2012–All rights reserved by Mediametrie//NetRatings
comScore MMX:
Audience measurements from comScore MMX are sourced in September 2013, Worldwide, Age: 15+.
The comScore panel is composed of 2 million panelists globally. All display impressions delivered by
Criteo in September 2013 were tracked at a proxy level by these panelists. The data represents the
number of unique users exposed to one or more Criteo banners.

About Criteo
Criteo is a global leader in digital Performance Display advertising, working
with over 4,000 e-commerce companies around the world. Criteo has over 700
employees in offices across the US, Europe and Asia, serving more than 40
countries.
For more information: www.criteo.com
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement
company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information,
television, and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measure-
ment, trade shows, and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approxi-
mately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the
Netherlands.
For more information: www.nielsen.com

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